Darkness Falls

Chapter 6

Darkness Falls

Chapter 6

Somewhere

A young woman, no older then twenty-five, slowly made her way down the darkened steps to her basement in the early hours of the morning. Just before the rest of the household would wake up to start their day.

Reaching the bottom, she produced a key from her blouse and unlocked the door at the far back of the basement. Once open, she quickly entered and locked the door behind her. Not wanting anyone to interrupt what she was about to do.

The room she entered wasn't very large. About the size of a broom closet, though this room held nothing of cleaning tools. No, on the floor was a red circle with an upside down triangle in it. Just in front of the circle was an alter that held a bowl and a knife. Kneeling down in the center of the circle, the woman removed her necklace and draped it over the alter before picking up the knife.

"Jashin-sama, I pray unto thee to come claim the tainted soul that corrupts and spoils our land." The woman began to pray as she brought the knife to her left arm before cutting deep into her under fore arm. Letting the blood flow down into the bowl on the alter. "I give my blood as an offering."

If she was in any pain, her face didn't show it. If anything, it looked as if she were full of bliss. A few minutes passed in silence as the blood pooled into the bottom of the bowl. Slowly, the blood began to glow and swirl on it's own, forming into a floating sphere that began to rise until it was at the same height as the woman's face.

"My child, I have heard your prayers."A distorted voice echoed from the sphere of blood. "Take heart my child. In two weeks time, you will be sheltered by the shadow of the fox."

It's message deliver, the blood sphere dissolved in mid air, leaving nothing behind but a smiling woman. Putting the knife back next to the bowl, she put her necklace back on before kissing the pendant.

"Thank you, Jashin-sama." She whispered as she got up from her kneeling position and exited the room. Being sure to lock the door once more.

"Tsunami!" A voice called from upstairs. "I'm heading to Konoha, I'll be back in two weeks!"

"Have a safe trip!" She called back with a smile.

Konoha

In a word, annoyed.

That would be the best way to describe the blonde hanyou at the moment. Even with the warnings from both Anko and Yugao, he never expected it to be this bad. Nothing but D-rank missions for the last month. They were assigned to do everything from painting fences, pulling weeds, and walking dogs. Nothing but common chores that the civilians were too lazy to do, though there were a few exceptions of some of them legitimately needing help.

Kakashi had spouted off some nonsense about it building team work for the team, but there hasn't been any of that as Sasuke would always isolate himself furthest from the others while they worked. The cycloptic jonin for his part wouldn't lift a finger to help either, instead choosing to keep his nose buried in his book of smut. Much to Sakura's annoyance.

Speaking of the cherry blossom, at least things were civil between her and the blonde hanyou. After there team celebration lunch and the talk they had, both had silently agreed to come to an understanding and decided to at least work as a team as required. Naruto was at least glad she had heeded some of his advice and started training a bit harder and had stopped her dieting. While her training was no where near as rigorous as his was, it was a step in the right direction.